A Year to Remember in Jewish Music
Students of • the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion School of Music receive individual and group prac-
tice in cantorial music at daily chapel services.
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By EPHRAIM GOLDMAN
(Copyright, 1951, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
In time to come, 1951 will be and music director at Temple
a year to remember in Jewish Israel in Lawrence, N. Y., and
music. This June the Hebrew a member of the faculty of the
Union School of Sacred Music in Julius Hartt Musical Foundation
New York, the only school for of Hartford, Conn.
The school has set itself the
cantors in the world, will gradu-
ate the first class of cantors to task of encouraging Jewish mu-
be trained in a school on Amer- sicians to take their rightful
lean soil. places as synagogue organists-
In the three years since the choir directors. It is attempting
school was organized by the He- to give professional standing to
brew Union College-Jewish In- service in the synagogue, which
stitution of Religion under the is dependent today for the most
administration of President Nel- part on non-Jewish organists,
son Glueck a n d through the . who are proficient organists,
efforts of Dr. Eric Werner, pro - but have no background in Jew-
fessor of Jewish Music, and Dr. ish tradition or Jewish music.
Preserves Cantorial Music
Abraham N. Frarizblau, dean of
Now an established training
the school, it has gone far to-
ground for cantors, the school
ward fulfilling its objectives.
is beginning to fulfill another
Fills Gap
A primary incentive for the
founding of the school was the
need to fill the gap :eft by the
Nazi destruction of the great
European centers of Jewish sac-
red music and the dispersion of
creators and teachers of Jewish
liturgical music.
Like the European schools it
succeeds, it trains cantors under
a faculty of specialists. The cus-
tomary practice of learning un-
der apprenticeship to one cantor
has proved inadequate, only the
rare cantor having complete
equipment for such a teaching
task—which certainly includes
sufficient understanding of the
devotional texts, expert musi-
cianship, knowledge of the
history of music, a good voice
and the ability to bring out the
best in his student, as well as a
thorough mastery of the tradi-
tional melodies of the syna-
gogues. .
The school, an integral part of
the Hebrew Union College-Jew-
ish Institute of Religion of Cin-
cinnati and New York, provides
a three-year course of study
which includes History of
Jewish Music and Liturgy, Tradi-
tional Synagogue Chants (Nu-
sach and Chazanuth), Cantilla-
tion, C h o r al Ensemble and
Conducting, Harmony, Improvis-
ation and other music studies and
also education, school adminis-
tration, Hebrew, Jewish history.
Bible and Judaism. . Under an
outstanding faculty represent-
ing all sections of Judaism, it
trains cantors for service in Or-
thodox, Conservative and Reform.
Congregations.
Requirements for Admission
Because a survey by the He-
brew Union School revealed that
few congregations can afford to
engage both a cantor and a
director of the synagogue re-
ligious school, the curriculum of
the school has been organized
to give cantorial students train-
ing in education to equip them
to serve as cantor-educators.
Applicants for admission to
the full program are required
to demonstrate that they have
good voices, a well-rounded mu-
sical education, a fair Jewish
background and a good person-
ality.
Train Organists, Directors
The school has among its
plans the introduction of several
fields of specialized training to
expand its services to the Jewish
cominunity.
The most recent addition to the
curriculum is a course of st7.dy
fo,r organists and choir direc-
tors to be initiated this fall under
the supervision of Dr. Isadore
E.Y.reecl, organist, choir director
of its important objectives—the
preservation and publication of
the best in Jewish liturgical mu-
sic. A first volume of the works
of the distinguish edCan-
tor Katchko is being prepared
now for appearance this spring.
Cantor Katchko, father of a
student in the Hebrew Union
School of Sacred Music and
cantor at Temple Anshe Chesed.
New York, is a famous teacher
of cantors.
Perhaps the best tribute to
the rightness of the decision to
found the Hebrew Union School
of Sacred Music lies in the fact
that cantors like Adolph Katch-
ko and Solomon Sternberg are
sending their sons to the school
for training. Six students in the
school are sons of cantors, three
are grandsons of cantors, and
one is the son and grandson of
cantors.
Students of the school have
been in great demand during
the past three years as part-
time student-cantors in regular
congregational posts, a n d as
cantors on the High Holy days.
Many of them have continued to
appear in recitals alone and in
choral groups, and in musical
programs for organl'zations like
the United Jewish Appeal and
Hadassah and fraternal societies.
Most of the members of the
senior class, which will be grad-
uated in June, already have
been spoken for by leading
American congregations.
Sacred Music A Treasure
While the Reform Jewish
movement has taken the lead
in safeguarding the continuity,
the dignity and the purity of
Jewish sacred music, it has pro-
ceeded on the principle that the
tradition of Jewish synagogual
music is the common treasure of
all Israel.. The school feels that
it should be open alike to all,
whether their origin or chosen
field of service is Orthodox, Con-
servative or Reform, and that
allover
48—THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 20, 1951
every cantorial student - should
be trained in all three rituals.
The only school for cantors in
the world, the Hebrew Union
School of Sacred Music has an
enormous task and a sacred ob-
ligation to serve K'lal Yisroel.
c
reetirtgi
to all our
many friends
Robinson
Furniture Co.
1420 Washington Blvd.
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NECTED WITH ANY OTHER
STORE.
HOLI AY GREETINGS
from
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AND
AT
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